For years, our profession treated the client survey as an annual checkbox. Send it out, tally the results, thank clients for their time and move on until next year. I want to challenge that approach, because this method of gathering client feedback works against the advisory growth you say you want.
Client Advisory Services (CAS) is the fastest-growing segment in public accounting. Firms with CAS practices report a median revenue growth rate of 17%, according to the CPA.com and AICPA PCPS Client Advisory Services Benchmark Survey. Those firms project that growth will nearly double again over the next three years. That trajectory shows clients want more from their accounting professionals than compliance work.
But I routinely ask firm leaders whether they know what “more” means to each of their most valuable clients. Too often, they’re guessing.
Nearly every firm leader I talk with at conferences and our Boomer Circle meetings runs some version of a client satisfaction survey. But very few ask their clients what they want to accomplish in their businesses over the next one to three years. That’s a serious missed opportunity, because it takes the same effort, the same email and the same ten minutes of a client’s attention but arrives at the wrong destination. Satisfaction tells you how you did. Goals tell you what to do next.
When Bain & Company researched client experience, it found 80% of company leaders believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of customers agreed. Most accounting firms operate on that same false confidence. We assume we know our clients’ priorities because we’ve served them for years. But assumption isn’t intelligence.
Here’s how to turn that disconnect around.
Track your top 100 clients firm-wide
I encourage every firm to build a Top 100 client list at the firm level, not the partner level. Individual partners often know their own clients well, but firm leadership rarely has a consolidated view of what the firm’s most valuable relationships need. Without that firm-wide view, advisory opportunities stay siloed within individual books of business, rather than being incorporated into a coordinated growth strategy.
Ask about them, not about you
When firms build client surveys, most questions center on the firm’s performance: Did we respond quickly? Were you satisfied with your engagement team? These questions have value, but if a client is willing to spend time filling out a survey, you’re better served by learning about their business than scoring your own service delivery.
Start with a direct, open question: If you could accomplish three goals for your business over the next three years, what would they be?
Follow that with a few targeted questions that point to the advisory services your firm delivers. For example, if you want to grow fractional CFO work, ask clients whether they have a dashboard that shows them business performance in real time. Ask whether monthly conversations about their numbers would change how they run the business. Let the client describe the problem in their own words instead of pitching them the solution before they identify the need.
Match the cadence to the calendar
Another big reason client surveys fail to produce usable intelligence is timing. Firms send one survey a year, collect thousands of responses at once, and then struggle to act on it all before the moment has passed. Ask a client in December about an engagement that closed in April, and you’ll get a vague answer at best.
Instead, ask one to three questions each quarter, and match them to the current client experience. In the fourth quarter, ask what questions they have about the upcoming tax deadline. In the second quarter, build on the momentum of tax season by asking whether the issues the firm brought up during that engagement are still on their mind, and whether a meeting to address them would be worthwhile. A quarterly cadence keeps the questions relevant, keeps the response volume manageable, and keeps the intelligence current enough to act on.
Treat tax season as a full-body physical
Think of the tax engagement as a full-body physical rather than a transaction. A physical doesn’t end when the doctor hands over a report. It ends with a conversation about what the results mean and what to do next. Too many firms send the tax return, close the file and wait for next year. But clients are most engaged with their numbers right now, so don’t let advisory conversations go unspoken.
Technology supports the conversation; it doesn’t replace it
Today, firms have more client intelligence tools available than ever before, from AI-powered analytics platforms to CRM systems built specifically for the profession. Those tools are helpful, but they don’t replace the fundamental skill of asking better questions, more often, at the right moments. A platform can’t uncover a client’s three-year goals if nobody asks the question.
Building this client intelligence discipline positions you to offer the advisory services clients value most, like fractional CFO work, strategic planning, and AI readiness assessments. You can’t sell your way into these engagements. Clients ask for them once they know you understand where their business is headed.
Start treating client intelligence as a continuous, firm-wide discipline, rather than an annual survey, and you’ll build the advisory pipeline the rest of the profession is still trying to find.
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